Global Courant
CNN CEO Chris Licht is out on the job after just over a year, as he failed to turn around the long-troubled news network, according to Puck’s Dylan Byers.
Byers, a former CNN reporter who has covered Licht for months, reported Wednesday that Licht will “soon step down.”
“CNN CEO Chris Licht will step down soon. Amy Entelis will serve as interim leader. Announcement could come as early as today,” Byers tweeted. Axios confirmed the message.
Parent company Warner Bros. Discovery, Light and CNN did not respond to requests for comment.
Light was handpicked last year by David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, to replace Jeff Zucker, who was forced out ahead of a long-planned merger that brought CNN under Zaslav’s control. Now, Less than two years later, Licht is out of a job and the future of Zaslav’s CNN remains unclear.
Embattled CNN CEO Chris Licht apologized to staff Monday morning for overshadowing the network’s coverage. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Warner Bros. Discovery)
Licht made it clear that he wanted to suppress “the spectacle” that was rampant during the Jeff Zucker era. He softened the network’s use of the network’s breaking news graphics, fired leftists such as John Harwood and Brian Stelter, and reached out to Republican lawmakers alienated by the previous regime’s approach. But liberal staffers who yearned for the partisan tone of the Zucker era never embraced Licht, who came to CNN from CBS’s “Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
He was regularly attacked by liberal media critics and his tenure was plagued by internal leaks from CNN staffers. He was also forced to make tough choices, such as scrapping the expensive CNN+ streaming service, a widely distributed product that confused onlookers and insiders from the start, and fired on the company’s orders.
However, some of Licht’s greatest wounds were self-inflicted.
Licht, who was known as a child prodigy producer who helped create MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” and revived CBS’ morning show, then announced that CNN’s morning show would be “reimagined.” He eventually built an AM show around host Don Lemon, another leftist figure who survived Licht’s first year but failed to work well with co-hosts Kaitlan Collins and Poppy Harlow. The show was known more for its on- and off-air melodrama than its actual coverage.
Light also went through 2022 without naming a permanent replacement for Chris Cuomo in the 9 p.m. primetime slot, who was fired at the end of 2021. Light tinkered with the place, filling it with several specials and a town hall that didn’t resonate with viewers. He ultimately chose Collins to fill the critical time slot, but Licht was gone before her new show made a dent.
CNN’s ratings were terrible under Licht, and he was regularly criticized for trying to fix daytime programming by simply recasting existing anchors. The “deck chairs on the Titanic” analogy was used by just about every media columnist in America at some point during his work.
Perhaps Licht’s biggest misstep, at least in regards to his fraught relationship with network executives, was last month’s town hall event with former President Trump.
An unflattering article about CNN CEO Chris Licht in The Atlantic has been the talk of the journalism industry since its publication on Friday. (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images)
Licht was criticized for giving Trump a platform in general, putting Collins in a difficult position as the crowd was filled with vociferous Trump supporters who applauded his comments, including when he called her “nasty.” Liberals were outraged that Light offered so much freedom to Trump, who used CNN’s platform to spew out talking points that the left hates.
Hours after Trump’s town hall, CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy joined the liberal attack on the network, writing in his newsletter, “It’s hard to see how America was served by the spectacle of lies that aired on CNN Wednesday night.”
Licht scolded Darcy for “emotional” reporting, but that didn’t stop him from taking pictures of his boss through his newsletter in the weeks that followed.
If City Hall wasn’t the beginning of the end for Licht, it was a devastating report from The Atlantic’s Tim Alberta, published June 1, about the turbulent year he had as CEO of CNN.
The unflattering report became the talk of the media industry, with many questioning why an outside reporter would be given unprecedented access to Light. Things got so ugly that this week, Licht apologized to CNN staffers for coming off as a distraction, but Darcy and other CNN voices seemed unwilling to rebuild the relationship.
“In the wake of The Atlantic’s explosive story, I spoke with dozens of employees across the company. A wide range of emotions are running through the corridors of CNN. Some employees are frustrated. Others are angry. Many are saddened by the terrible state of affairs that has taken hold of an organization they love,” Darcy wrote in his CNN newsletter. “However, there is one almost universal feeling that has been communicated to me: Light has lost the room.”
A television insider told Fox News Digital that CNN’s anchors already considered Licht a dead man by the time he apologized this week, and there was likely no return.
This is a developing story, more to come…
Fox News’ David Rutz contributed to this report.
Brian Flood is a media reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to [email protected] and on Twitter: @briansflood.
